


Summer Reading

by Your_Favorite_Fetus



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Bad Dreams, Gen, Gravity Falls Spoilers, Nightmares, Older Dipper Pines, Older Mabel Pines, One Shot, Who knows??, bill almost KILLED HER, can we please acknowledge that mabel suffered in gravity falls as well, i'm considering continuing it, like mabel genuinely almost DIED, mabel has a nightmare, people don't give mabel enough attention, please go easy on me, they're maybe fourteen or fifteen here, this is my first time writing something for bill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-22 18:22:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21081011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Your_Favorite_Fetus/pseuds/Your_Favorite_Fetus
Summary: Mabel Pines had been assigned a summer reading book about the apocalypse. Reading it in the dead of night, while her brother and great uncles slept, gave her a sense of unease.She almost felt like she wasn't alone.





	Summer Reading

The harsh light from the flashlight illuminated the characters in her summer reading book as she read. Mabel lacked appreciation for the book that she had been assigned. She had been hoping for something more lighthearted; dark topics weren't exactly her forte. Ironically, she had gotten exactly that. A book based around the apocalypse. People running and screaming. Hiding from their nightmares.

If you had asked her a year before, Mabel would have told you that the idea of a dark book sounded boring. What was the point about writing about doom and gloom when lighter subjects were so much happier? She viewed them as having more to offer. There were only a certain number of dark stories about death, yet there were an infinite number of bright topics to gush about.

However, now she was older. She knew better. 

She still saw the good in the world, yet definitely knew there was bad out there. Of course she did. She and her twin had experienced it firsthand.

Her attention was taken off of her book, aiming her flashlight down as she looked across the room, her eyes landing on the bed where Dipper slept. The silence of slumber hung in the air, and Mabel was reminded of how little they had spoken about what had happened.

She had thought about bringing it up. She had wanted to, initially. While the shock of the event hung in the air, she wanted to mention it, wanted to vent to somebody, anybody, about it. But talking about it was hard, and, by the lack of conversation about it, she could tell Dipper felt the same way.

So neither of them spoke about it. For the very few times they had brought it up, the conversations were awkward, short, and tense, full of pauses.

Mabel grew to dislike the mention of their real-life apocalypse. She avoided things that reminded her of it. She surrounded herself with friends. Friends that kept her mind focused on other things.

What really hurt her, though, was how she felt like it had all been her fault. 

It _was_ all her fault, and she felt guilt trickle down her throat and clasp around her chest whenever that fact slithered into her train of thought.

None of what had happened would have happened if she had known better. If she hadn't been so naive. Ready to give anything away for an endless summer with her brother and grunkles in Gravity Falls.

But, instead of fixing things, she had ruined _everything_.

The familiar lump in her throat returned, and she took a deep breath. After a moment of consideration, she looked back over at her book, aiming her flashlight at it again.

The harsh light on the off-white paper of the pages stung her eyes a bit. Maybe she should get some sleep.

_A few more chapters,_ she commanded herself mentally. When Mabel lacked the desire to do something, she often found herself procrastinating, and she hoped to minimalize her amount of procrastination.

With that, she put her focus back into her book. It was hard to read with the foggy haze of weariness clouding her mind. She'd often skim a page before realizing that she hadn't actually read it, having to go back to reread it. Twice. Sometimes three times. 

Oddly enough, the silence of the old shack was distracting. She would have actually preferred for them to be some sort of noise. The TV being left on downstairs. Bickering between her great uncles. Even Dipper murmuring in his sleep would have helped her to focus better.

But there was no sound. It was as silent as death.

Then, as if there was something that had been reading her mind, there was a bump.

Mabel flinched, her sleepy brown eyes widening, and the light from her flashlight wobbled, drifting off of the pages and onto the floor. Her head quickly turned to stare through the triangular window between them.

_It's nothing,_ she told herself. She knew it was nothing. At least, he did her best to convince herself that she did. Her brown eyes stayed fixed on the window, as if something would appear through the glass. She knew nothing would. She _knew_ it.

After not spotting anything through the glass and taking a deep breath, Mabel shone her flashlight back at the pages of the book. However, it seemed that, no matter how hard she tried to focus on the words, she was unable to.

Maybe she should just get some sleep.

Sleep sounded comforting. The idea of being able to close her eyes and drift off into a land where she could forget her problems... 

With the desire for sleep the only thought she could think about, Mabel bent the corner of the page she was on to mark where she had left off, before closing the book and tossing it onto the floor, where it landed with a _thud_.

That noise didn't intimidate her like the other one had. With this one, Mabel at least knew where it had come from. Despite knowing that it was probably nothing, the idea that she couldn't be positive that it was nothing to worry about ate away at her insides and made her afraid to close her eyes. With a click, the flashlight was turned off.

Suddenly, of course, another thought entered Mabel's mind. One that distracted her from the comforting idea of sleep.

_Bill enters dreams._

Hearing his name, even in her head, caused her stomach to plummet. She almost gasped as she instinctively switched the flashlight back on. Chills overtook her as a feeling of dread zipped through all of her limbs like an electric shock. Just like that, all of the comfort associated with sleep has dissolved and was replaced with unease. 

  


What was she to do then? She could no longer focus on her book, and the nightmare of falling asleep was keeping her awake. Should she wake up Dipper? 

  


Her head turned to look towards her twin, sleeping peacefully. He lay on his side, his back to Mabel, his shoulders rising and falling with every breath that he took. He seemed so calm in his sleep. Sometimes he would toss and turn and mumble in his sleep unintelligibly, keeping Mabel up, but not this night. He slept soundly, at ease. Part of her wished that he was tossing and turning from a nightmare. That would at least give her an excuse to wake him up. Seeing him so tranquil kept her from doing so.

  


Mabel had endured nightmares of her own, yet she tried not to think too deeply about them during her wakeful hours. She always tried to reassure herself that they were nightmares created by her imagination, and not something else. Now, sitting up straight in bed, staring at her twin brother, she wasn’t so sure about that.

  


The shape that the moonlight coming through the window cast on the wall was definitely not helping. Seeing it caused the fear she felt to wrap around her body like a python and squeeze the air out of her lungs. Sinking lower into her bed, she pulled the covers over her head and brought the flashlight under with her.

  


What was Mabel to do? Lie awake until she either unconsciously drifted off into sleep? She was unsure if she’d even be able to fall asleep at all. Her racing thoughts combined with her paranoia and mental fog were too distracting.

  


Letting her flashlight rest on her chest as she lay flat on her back, she closed her eyes.

  


She was unsure of when exactly she had fallen asleep. Had she fallen asleep at all? When she opened her eyes, her bed had vanished from beneath her and she stood on her feet, ankle-deep in water. Her eyes scanned the area around her. With the lack of any other light source besides the full moon above, the stars twinkled vibrantly, as if they were welcoming her. Dark evergreen trees surrounded her, swaying gently, as if they were being blown by a breeze that Mabel couldn't sense.

  


She looked down at the water. She was still wearing her pink pajamas, a few steps into a lake, deep into the woods of what she assumed was Gravity Falls. While she was able to note the sensation of the water around her feet and the mud beneath her toes, Mabel was unable to feel the chill of the water around her ankles. Curious by this, she took a few hesitant steps forward. The feeling rose up to the base of her calves, yet she still felt no chill. Crouching and dipping her hands into the water as well, the water still lacked coldness. It wasn't warm, either. It was the same temperature as the air surrounding her.

Was she dreaming? How did she get there?

She stood up straight and took another step into the water, observing the ripples that bounced gracefully across the surface of the lake, distorting the image of the moon in the reflection. Eyes locked onto the surface of the water, she was mesmerized by how stunning the reflection looked. When she stood still and the ripples in the water faded, she was even able to see the reflection of the stars. It was perfect.

_Too perfect to be real,_ she realized.

"I'm dreaming," she stated out loud to herself, not expecting an answer.

"_You sure are!_"

The voice, coming from behind Mabel, made her skin crawl. She was definitely dreaming. And she could recognize that voice anywhere. The voice that had turned this peaceful dream into a crushing nightmare. Her head jerked to look back, followed by the rest of her body following suit.

Nobody was there. And on top of that, the land behind her seemed to be disintegrating. The edge of the land was cracking and falling to pieces, trickling down, falling away into a void that twinkled with stars and comets. Earth was falling to ruin beneath her feet.

Her chest burned with sudden panic. Where was he? 

She whirled around again. The same phenomenon was happening to the landscape in front of her. However, instead of dripping down like regular water, the lake too seemed to crack into pieces and fall, just like the solid land. Still, she saw nobody. Dizziness rushed to her head as she watched the ground dissolve around her, leaving a jagged-edged platform where she stood.

She was dreaming. None of this was real. She just had to remind herself that.

“I’m dreaming,” she forced, her voice cracking.

“_You’ve already said that, Shooting Star!_” He sounded amused. His voice was louder. Booming. 

It made her feel so weak. So small. So very, _very_ small.

She was expecting for the ground to crack and crumble beneath her feet, just like the rest of it had. However, that was the one piece of land that remained. The only thing keeping her from falling into space. Looking down, she was unable to spot the remains of the landscape that had previously surrounded her.

The water around her legs suddenly felt ice cold.

“I’m _dreaming_.” She was like a broken record, unable to say anything else.

“_Oh, would you quit repeating yourself? I heard you just fine the first time!_”

Rising from below were a bunch of remnants of the land that drifted up, spinning and twisting. A blue aura began to emanate from them, faint at first, before growing brighter. The rubble gradually pulled together, fitting almost perfectly, like pieces of a triangular puzzle.

There was a bright flash of light, and a sudden, strong gust of wind that blew Mabel’s hair back. Instinctively, she shielded her eyes with her arm, using all of her might to not fall backwards into the starry void. The light faded after what felt like an eternity, and Mabel allowed her arm to lower from her eyes. 

Floating there, in all his glory, was none other than Bill Cipher. 

“_You don’t seem so thrilled to see me!_” If he had a visible mouth, Mabel assumed he’d be smiling.

She had heard him in her nightmares before, but actually seeing him terrified her more than his voice ever had. Despite the terror coating her entire body, she shot him the harshest glare she could muster.

“You’re not real.” Mabel’s voice wobbled, but she kept it from faltering.

There was the sound of cracking, and she quickly looked down. Beneath her, the platform that remained of the landscape was cracking. Oddly enough, it sounded like glass instead of land, like the rest of it had.

“_Are you sure about that?_”

Mabel’s heart sank. She was nowhere near close to being sure about that, but she wasn’t about to verbally confirm that, so she remained silent. Bill continued, his voice climbing in volume until it was nearly deafening.

“_Did you really think I’d be gone forever? Did you?! You know who I am! You’ve seen what I’ve done! Did you and your dumb family honestly think it would be that easy to get rid of me?_”

“You’re not real,” she repeated, her voice unsteady. The ground continued to crack beneath her.

“_You’re repeating yourself again! Come on, kid, say something new!_” He hovered closer to her, staring down at her as he circled her like a predator. 

She _knew_ she was dreaming. All she had to do was wake up, though she wasn’t exactly sure how.

“_Come on! I know there’s a lot you're _dying_ to say to me! Why don’t you tell me?_”

Bill was definitely correct. There was so, _so_ much Mabel wanted to say to him. She wanted to yell at him, scream at him for ruining her mental health. And Dipper’s. She wanted him to know just how much he had hurt her. She opened her mouth, and the words clogged in the back of her throat. Not a sound came out. It was as if he had removed her vocal cords.

“_Say something, Shooting Star! I know you want to!_” His tone was jovial, sing-song. The cheeriness in his voice lit her nerves on fire.

“Wake up,” she commanded herself quietly. “Wake up, wake up, wake up…”

The ground rumbled beneath her, little solid fragments of the water she stood in falling down into the abyss of space.

“_You’re talking to yourself! Say something to me, instead!_”

Rage bubbled inside of her, swirling around and mixing with the panic she felt. Before she could even realize it, she was yelling.

“GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU STUPID _JERK!_”

“_Theeere it is! See? I knew you could do it!_"

More rumbling. The galaxy around her was rippling like the surface of the ocean during a hurricane.

“_Looks like our time is up, kid, but I’ll be seeing you and your brother_ very _soon! Make sure to keep your eyes peeled!_”

More rumbling. Mabel looked down. The land beneath her had cracked in two. The pieces drifted away from each other, out from under her bare feet, and she fell through space. Plummeting down, down… She couldn’t even scream as the air rushed past her face. Falling, falling…

Until she landed with a _jolt_.

A gasp escaped her lips. Her body shot upright, a blanket falling from the top of her head. Her head pounded with every fast beat of her heart. She was in a bedroom. Her bedroom, safe in her own bed. Everything was exactly how it had been before she had fallen asleep, except for the time on the clock and the amount of light coming through the triangular window. She stared at the clock by her bed. 

_6:03 AM_. She glanced over to Dipper’s bed. He still lay, completely still, in bed. However, now he was on his back, his mouth hanging open. After a moment of consideration, she crept out of bed, making her way over to his bed.

Should she be waking him up? It was still a bit early for the both of them. Doting on this topic, she decided that it would be a good idea to wake him up. Not only was she concerned about what Bill had said in her dream, but she craved somebody to talk to about it before the details of it faded away.

Nudging him, she whispered loudly to him. “Dipper… Dipper, wake up. I need to talk to you.”

Her twin groaned in response, but his eyes stayed closed as he shifted in bed.

“Dipper, _please_ wake up.”

His closed eyes squinted. She pushed him a little harder, eliciting another annoyed grumble.

“What? What do you want, Mabel?” Dipper’s words were mumbled and groggy.

“I had a nightmare.”


End file.
